Cong. tried to reduce quota for Dalits: Modi

Mr. Modi said the Congress had launched it as a “pilot project” in Andhra Pradesh with an intention to extend it all over the country.

The Prime Minister defended his recent remarks on “redistribution of wealth”, saying he had exposed the “vote bank and appeasement politics” of the Congress in his 90-second speech. “The Congress has hatched a deep conspiracy to snatch people’s wealth and distribute it among the select people,” he said, adding that his exposure had created so much panic in the Congress and the INDIA bloc that their leaders were abusing him everywhere.

“It is written in their manifesto that they will survey the wealth. Their leader said publicly that the wealth would be detected with X-ray. When Modi exposed the secret, your hidden agenda was revealed, and you are trembling... We are ready to confront you,” the Prime Minister said.

On the issue of reservation, Mr. Modi said an attempt was made to extend the quota facility to Muslims at the national level in 2011 by cutting into the reservation meant for Dalits and backward classes. “Amid all these conspiracies, Modi is giving you a guarantee with an open heart that reservation for Dalits and backward tribals will neither be abolished nor will it be allowed to be divided in the name of religion,” he said.

The Prime Minister said he had extended the reservation for Dalits and tribal people for 10 years in 2020 when the constitutional limit for the quota was ending. He said the BJP government, when elected in Karnataka, had abolished the Muslim reservation which was created by snatching the share of the SC and ST communities.